A distinctive feature of all these “confessions” is that they are published exclusively in the form of extracts, hearsay and retelling the words of dead relatives or protagonists, with sources “destroyed” either by authors themselves of by thoughtless relatives of the person who held the rarity.
Quite typical techniques are employed here:
• common Armenian names of protagonists (Armen, Tigran, Khachatur);
• detailed depiction of the “atrocities” (torture of newborns, abuse, contributions to a clandestine subversive committee “Krunk”);
• absence or very blurred depiction of small details, such as: weather, mood, events preceding the described episode not related to the “atrocity” itself that necessarily accompany any narration;
• invariable presence of children, young girls or old people in the episode;
• indication of unconfirmed details about the author or edition; representing fictitious addresses, non-existent publishing houses or localities (Daud Mansur Heyriyan, born in 1942 in Beirut, ethnic Armenian, resides in Beirut, in the Armenian district, house 43, apartment 25, block 1, on the second floor337; publishing house ‘Vanadzor’338);
• attempts to use in the text Armenian place names or brands, albeit, with mistakes: Jemruk, Javakkh, Haestan.339
A few excerpts from this non-existent “book” are constantly quoted in the Azerbaijani mass media as a proof of “atrocities perpetrated by Armenians”. However, neither the original book, nor its full contents or even the full contents of the quoted pages has ever been presented anywhere. The same applies to the fictitious book by Daud Heyriyan (Heyryan) entitled ‘In the Name of the Cross’.
In 2012, the Xenophobia Prevention Initiative NGO officially announced its intention to purchase the books ‘Resurrection of Our Soul’ and ‘In the Name of the Cross’.340 In the 6-months’ period following the announcement, the proposal remained unanswered.
As a rule, the plot of the “horror stories” follows the same pattern: ritualistic and vindictive blood thirst and inhuman cruelty which spring from the upbringing and negative sentiments intrinsic to Armenians.
“All Armenians make contributions to a certain fund” to finance action against Azerbaijan”. The name of the fund varies depending on the storyteller, the general fabric of the narration or the goal at hand. It may be “Krunk”, “Ejmiadzin” or “Dashnaks”.
“Armenians entombed Azerbaijani children in welded tubes”. The place of the tube, its form, eyewitness accounts of retrieving the bodies or welding the tube as well as the number of children vary depending on the author, edition, etc.
Locality:
Gugark (Lori Province, Armenia);341
Spitak (Lori Province, Armenia);
Leninakan (Shirak Province, Armenia);
Kapan (Syunik Province, Armenia), Karabakh.342
The tube:
chimney;343
a tube 20 meters long, with a diameter of 1.5 meters;344
a tube 6 meters long, with Azerbaijani children aged between 3 and 10 entombed inside.345
The number of entombed children:
70 children aged 5-12;346
23 bodies found entombed alive in a chimney;347
80 Azerbaijani children were entombed in a tube and set ablaze;348
71 corpses of Azerbaijani children;349
15 Azerbaijani children.350
Discovered by:
a French rescue team;
Medina Sharifova, the mother of one of the children;
an Azerbaijani doctor;
French dogs.
It must be noted here that the reference is made to a single tube. No Azerbaijani source or official makes reference to more than one tube assuming that they existed in several places at the same time.
The mythology of “children welded shut in a tube” is a subtly schemed and potent device. It shakes the foundations of the human self-consciousness, morality, instincts and worldview. The image of suffering children gives people such a dreadful shock that they stop thinking reasonably on the assumption that “such things cannot be invented”. Facts, logic or proofs are no longer needed as the goal is achieved.
“Of course, the world has an unwritten law of double standards, and we regularly face this tendency. Why the international organizations, which routinely issue statements on violations of human rights in Azerbaijan, have not in all these years made any statement on the Azerbaijani children entombed alive in welded tubes and ruthlessly slain by Armenians? Personally, I have not come across any such statements”, said Vusala Huseynli, Country Manager of World Youth Bank Network.351
“Armenians tortured Azerbaijanis”. The sophisticated brutality and variety of tortures is shocking.
Tortures352
Shoes made of umbilical skin: Armenians removed the skin of captive Azerbaijanis and even invented a special device for this process.
The right eye goes first: Armenians first put out the right eye of a captive Azerbaijani man. <…> To start with, they thrust a red-hot piece of wire into the right eye or plucked it out with a knife.
Torture with vipers: First Zhora dropped the captive, with his hands and feet tied, into a pit swarming with snakes whose fangs had been pulled out. After seeing enough of this, Zhora would let in fully-fanged snakes to attack the captive.
Tortures using horseshoes, nails, knives and axes: They killed hundreds of thousands Azerbaijani citizens using this torture. In their workshops, Armenian blacksmiths made many horseshoes and nails for the sons of Azerbaijan. Tortures of Azerbaijanis by Armenians using axes were even more appalling. Great number of bodies was found hacked into pieces like firewood. They plunged and twisted knives into the flesh of Azerbaijanis.
Tortures using salt: <…> Many of the dead had their eye sockets filled with salt. Many were flayed, with their raw flesh salted. <…> Large amounts of salted water were injected into their intestines.
Tortures using a pair of tongs: <…> they tore the lips of Azerbaijanis into a bloody mess and pulled out their golden tooth crowns. There were also many cases when chunks of the living flesh were torn out with a pair of tongs. <…> They say that an Armenian who had lost his eye during the war was transplanted the eye of a good-looking Azerbaijani man.
A book entitled Hale has a story named “The Gorge of Abandoned Stones” giving the following blood-curdling account: They had no mercy not only for women, old people and children, but did not spare disabled and mentally ill persons who had been confined to their beds for years. Good-natured and peaceful Gheychi Turks who held nothing in their arms except for saz, fell victims to armed to the teeth Dashnaks. A famous musician, ashugh Najaf, suffered special tortures at the hands of Dashnaks: they attached a boiling samovar to his chest and made him walk around the villages until his flesh was scalded through from the hot steam.353